Auburn Gymnastics climbs into top five of latest poll, ranks first in vault

Auburn Gymnastics performed like the best in the country. Their reward? They are ranked as one of the best in the country.

Last Saturday, Auburn Gymnastics performed like the best in the country. Their reward? They are ranked as one of the best in the country.

Following a record-breaking performance at the Super 16 in Las Vegas over the weekend, Auburn Gymnastics is now ranked No. 5 in the country according to RoadToNationals.com.

The Tigers scored 197.350 in their season-opening meet, finishing third behind the last two national champions – Oklahoma and Michigan– and above perennial power UCLA. Their overall score set a program record for the highest total in a season-opening meet.

Auburn’s strongest event last Saturday was the vault. [autotag]Derrian Gobourne[/autotag], [autotag]Cassie Stevens[/autotag], [autotag]Sara Hubbard[/autotag], and Olympic gold medalist [autotag]Suni Lee[/autotag] each scored 9.9 on the way to a 49.500 total score. Auburn’s win propelled them to the No. 1 overall ranking in this week’s poll.

“I was really happy with our vault performance,” Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said. “We’ve heard a lot about how we’ve had to improve on that event and I think our vault squad really took that to heart. That score was just a reward for all their hard work.”

Oklahoma checks in at No. 1 in this week’s poll, while Michigan is No. 4. Auburn’s schedule does not get any easier this week, as they travel to No. 2 Florida on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. CT. The meet will be televised by ESPN2.

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